Preview of The Campaign Summary:

Fuentes is a novelist with a pronounced philosophic bent. In his earlier works he uses the ideas of the existentialist philosophers, especially the French ones. In The Campaign his characters embrace the ideas of the eighteenth-century philosophers, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Diderot. Baltasar Bustos is a follower of Rousseau, Xavier Dorrego finds Voltaire more suitable to his temperament, and Manuel Varela believes that the philosophy of Denis Diderot is a better guide for life and politics. They are close friends who believe that liberty from the domination of Spain is inevitable, but Bustos alone actually fights to achieve this end.

Bustos' quest is a blend of idealism and the passion he feels for a married woman whom he hopes to impress. He has spied on Ofelia Salamanca in her boudoir while plotting to kidnap her child and replace it with the baby of a black prostitute. Ofelia, the wife...